A real interview moment—and a reminder that every workplace needs better communication.
During a recent round of interviews, we asked a question that seemed straightforward:
“What would you do if an important piece of equipment went down during your shift?”
Several candidates talked about troubleshooting, notifying a manager, and figuring out how to continue working while the equipment was unavailable.
One person answered differently: Pick it up, clean it off, and get back to work.
For a moment, we were talking about two completely different situations.
I meant the equipment had stopped working.
That person understood that it had fallen.
Same question. Same words. Two different meanings.
And honestly? I appreciated that moment.
It gave me a reason to stop and consider the question itself. I knew what I meant by “went down.” Several other people understood what I meant, too. But that did not make my wording clear to everyone.
Knowing what you mean is only the beginning of communicating it.
Before You Blame the Answer, Look at the Question
In an interview, it would have been easy to hear that response and immediately question the candidate’s judgment.
But what was the person actually responding to?
A broken machine? Or equipment on the floor?
Those situations call for different responses. If we were picturing different problems, we could hardly expect to agree on the solution.
That matters in hiring. When an answer seems off, a useful follow-up is: “Tell me how you understood that question.”
We still need to evaluate the candidate’s knowledge, experience, and judgment. We also need to make sure our question gave the person a fair opportunity to demonstrate them.
A clearer version of my question would have been:
“If a piece of equipment you needed to do your job stopped working during your shift, what steps would you take?”
A few extra words would have removed the guesswork.
That lesson follows us well beyond the interview room.
How Much of Your Workplace Runs on Assumptions?
Think about the instructions people hear every day:
“Handle this as soon as possible.”
“Make sure the office is ready.”
“Keep me in the loop.”
“Use your judgment.”
“I need you to be more professional.”
Each statement makes sense to the person saying it. Each also leaves room for interpretation.
“As soon as possible” might mean before lunch to a manager and before the end of the week to an employee managing several competing priorities.
“Ready” might mean clean, stocked, tested, unlocked, and prepared for the first customer. The person receiving the instruction may only know about the cleaning.
“Keep me in the loop” does not tell someone whether you want an immediate phone call, a daily email, or an update at the next staff meeting.
Then something gets missed.
The manager is frustrated. The employee is confused. Someone says, “But I told you.”
You may have said it. What did the other person understand?
That is the question we need to spend more time asking.
When Everyone Thinks Someone Else Owns It
Consider a supervisor telling two employees, “Please make sure everything is ready for the new hire on Monday.”
One employee prepares the workspace. The other gathers training materials. Both believe they have done their part.
Monday arrives. The new hire has a desk and a binder, but no system access, no confirmed training schedule, and no one assigned to greet them.
The supervisor asks, “Why wasn’t this handled?”
The employees respond, “I thought someone else was doing that.”
“Ready for Monday” sounded like a complete instruction. It left several decisions unresolved: What needed to be ready? Who owned each step? Who would confirm that everything was complete?
A clearer conversation would assign those responsibilities and set a time to check progress before the new employee arrived.
That small investment in communication could prevent a confusing first day, lost training time, and an avoidable scramble for the rest of the team.
“They Should Have Known” Deserves a Closer Look
Accountability matters. Employees are responsible for applying the training, knowledge, and experience that come with their role. But accountability works best when paired with clear expectations.
Before deciding that someone ignored an instruction, ask:
- Did we explain the expected result?
- Did we identify the deadline and priority?
- Did we clarify who was responsible?
- Did we explain when to ask for help?
- Did we give the person a reasonable opportunity to ask questions?
If the same misunderstanding keeps happening with different people, the instruction deserves a review.
“We have always said it that way” explains a habit. It does not establish that the habit works.
Experienced employees can forget how much workplace language they have learned over time. Acronyms, shorthand, inside references, and phrases that feel obvious to us may be unfamiliar to someone else.
New employees have to learn the job and the language we use to describe it. We can make that easier.
Make It Safe to Say, “Wait. What Do You Mean?”
I appreciate someone who pauses to clarify.
That pause gives us an opportunity to catch a misunderstanding before it affects the work.
But employees notice how leaders respond to questions.
If asking for clarification gets an eye roll, an irritated sigh, or “I already explained that,” people may decide it is easier to nod and figure it out later.
Then we wonder why they did not ask.
We need to make room for questions—and respond in a way that makes people willing to ask the next one.
That also means being willing to say, “I can see how you understood it that way. Let me explain what I meant.”
Taking responsibility for unclear wording is a useful leadership skill. It helps get the work back on track.
Replace “Do You Understand?” With a Better Conversation
“Do you understand?” can get a quick yes without revealing what the person actually understood.
A more useful approach is to invite the person to explain the next steps:
“Let’s make sure we’re on the same page. What will you do first?”
“What will be completed by Friday?”
“If that does not resolve the problem, who will you contact?”
These questions help both people identify gaps. They also give the speaker a chance to correct an assumption or supply a detail that was missing.
The goal is shared understanding. The conversation should feel like working through the assignment together, with enough clarity for the employee to move forward.
Communication Belongs in the HR Conversation
HR professionals often find themselves addressing performance issues, employee relations concerns, customer complaints, and workplace conflict. While those situations have many causes, unclear communication can be hiding underneath them.
An employee is described as unresponsive, but no one established an expected response time. A supervisor reports that an employee has a poor attitude, but the feedback never identifies the behavior that needs to change. Two departments miss a deadline because each believed the other was responsible for the final step.
These situations consume time. Work has to be repeated. Customers wait. Managers become frustrated. Employees begin to question whether expectations are fair or consistent.
By the time HR gets involved, the conversation may already be about a written warning.
Before we document a failure to meet expectations, we need to establish what those expectations were—and how they were communicated.
Consider the difference between these two statements:
“You need to communicate better.”
“When a customer issue will delay an order, notify the supervisor before the promised pickup time and document the update in the customer record.”
The second gives the employee something specific to do. It also gives the manager something specific to follow up on.
That is where communication and accountability connect.
HR’s role includes helping leaders identify whether they are dealing with an unclear expectation, a training gap, a lack of resources, or an employee who understands the requirement and still fails to follow through. Those situations may require different responses.
Clear communication helps us make that distinction and address the actual problem.
It also strengthens the everyday systems that support the business: onboarding, handoffs, customer service, performance feedback, and consistent supervision.
Communication is a management responsibility with consequences for how the business operates. It deserves more attention than a reminder to “do better” after something goes wrong.
Yes, We All Need Communication Training
Including those of us who communicate for a living.
After more than 30 years in HR, I still catch myself assuming that because something is clear in my head, it must be clear to everyone else.
That interview question reminded me how easily it happens.
I had a specific situation in mind. I used a familiar phrase. I expected the person answering to picture exactly what I pictured.
They didn’t.
And I was glad the response made that visible. It gave me the opportunity to clarify the question instead of continuing with an assumption about the answer.
That is why communication training has value for owners, managers, supervisors, and employees. We all bring habits and assumptions into a conversation. We all have opportunities to be clearer, listen more carefully, and ask a better follow-up question.
At Purciarele Group, we provide communication training that helps managers, supervisors, and teams set clear expectations, address concerns directly, and hold people accountable with confidence.
Bring us the instructions that keep getting misunderstood. The conversations your managers keep putting off. The recurring frustration that starts with, “I already told them.”
Our workshops turn those everyday challenges into opportunities to practice: giving specific direction, checking understanding, delivering useful feedback, and working through difficult conversations. Participants leave with practical tools they can put to work immediately.
How much time is your organization spending correcting work, resolving conflict, or managing complaints that clearer communication could have prevented?
If communication issues are affecting performance, customer service, teamwork, or morale, let’s talk about a workshop for your organization.
Learn More About Purciarele Group Communication Workshops
We love HR so you don’t have to®.
